Bavaria to release Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

Bavaria, the German state which owns the rights to Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' has announced it will release an annotated version, 70 years after the Nazi leader's death.

Holocaust survivors and their families have expressed fears that neo-Nazis could seize upon the book as propagandaPhoto: AFP/GETTY

7:38PM BST 24 Apr 2012

After winning a court battle last month against a British publisher who planned to publish parts of the anti-Semitic book alongside commentary from historians, Bavaria said it would put out its own edition by 2015.

Markus Soeder, the state finance minister, told German news agency DPA the decision was taken after talks with advocates and opponents of the move, and said it was aimed at "demystifying" the pages.

"We want to make clear what nonsense is in there, however with catastrophic consequences," Mr Soeder said of the book on which much of the Nazis' genocidal policies were based.

He said the state aimed with the release to already make future publication as "commercially unattractive" as possible.

In addition to the annotated book, the state also plans to put out an edition for schools that encourages a critical approach to the work.

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Holocaust survivors and their families have expressed fears that neo-Nazis could seize upon the book as propaganda.

A court in the state capital Munich ruled in March that British publisher Peter McGee would violate Bavaria's copyright on the work if he went ahead with plans to sell excerpts with explanations and commentary on German news-stands.

Mr McGee has vowed to appeal the decision.

Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle"), in 1924 while in a Bavarian prison, and combined elements of autobiography with his views on Aryan "racial purity", his hatred of Jews and his opposition to communism.

Millions of copies were distributed before his death in 1945.

It is not banned as such in Germany but since the end of the Second World War, Bavaria – which holds the rights until the end of 2015 – has not permitted reprints.

From 2016, third parties will be able to release copies of the work without obtaining permission from the state "unless it is used to incite racial hatred," Mr Soeder said.